This tutorial describes how to configure a basic network with a single company headquarters in minutes. You’ll define an organization, establish network zones (including a guest zone), add users, and then deploy SDI-130 wireless gateways into the sites. You design first and deploy the hardware last.

This tutorial steps you through setting up a basic network and putting it into production. It takes about 20 minutes to complete.

SteelConnect Manager (SCM) uses a single control plane for all sites and provides central policy management for the distributed enterprise. You use it to define the network-wide policy and push the policy to all devices. You complete all configurations through the central console using abstract concepts such as users, applications, sites, and zones.

To begin, log in to SCM. By default, the username is admin and the default password is pppp.

After a successful log in, you're greeted by the dashboard.

The dashboard shows a visual representation of your organization. Double-click to zoom in. For more details, see Viewing network topology.

SCM uses these terms to describe your company:

SCM is delivered with a default organization. You’ll want to edit the default organization.

After adding the company name, you’ll add basic information. You can always change and customize this information later.

The dashboard map updates dynamically to keep an accurate visual overview of your network. You can always refer to the dashboard map as you define your topology to make sure the deployment is accurate.

The next task is to create one or more sites. If you have a lot of sites you can also do a bulk import to speed things up as described in Creating sites. For now, we’ll start by adding a site manually.

After you create the site, it appears on the dashboard map. Repeat Step 2 through Step 6 to add a site for the data center in Ashburn, and two more sites for branches in Seattle and Dallas.

After you define your organization and add sites, you are ready to design a network. You’ll start by editing and creating zones. Zones are Layer 2 network segments (or VLANs within sites) that contain networks and IP addresses. In this tutorial, you’ll change the default zone for the LAN.

The LAN zone is complete.

By default, all sites are configured with an internet uplink and a AutoVPN uplink which automatically creates secure tunnels over internet links to create a secure overlay network.

Next, you’ll create a new zone for guests. Within the guest zone, you can determine how guests can register their devices: using their mobile phone number (SMS), email address, or social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, Google).

After you create a guest zone you can’t change it to a standard zone.

Two zones are ready for use: one for the corporate LAN in San Francisco and one for the headquarters guests.

When you add an appliance for future deployment, it’s called a shadow appliance. Shadow appliances are basically cardboard cutouts that you can use to represent what will be a physical appliance after registering it with a serial number.

Before deploying the hardware, you need to establish a policy that the sites have permission to recognize each other. Because the network is going to be transiting zones, you create an outbound/internal rule within a policy that allows this rule.

SteelConnect Manager stores all configurations, including your existing and future plans. This means you can either add an appliance when you physically have it, or you can preplan and configure an appliance for the future and then later drop the physical appliance into the topology with no further configuration needed.

In SCM, an appliance can be an SD-WAN gateway, a SteelHead SD appliance, an Ethernet switch, or a Wi-Fi access point.

When you add an appliance for future deployment, it’s called a shadow appliance. Shadow appliances are basically cardboard cutouts that you can use to represent what will be a physical appliance after registering it with a serial number.

Now you have shadow appliances deployed and zones created. The next task is to register the physical devices to transform them from shadow appliances into physical appliances.

All internet connections, or uplinks, are automatically created when you set up your sites. By default, all uplinks use DHCP; however, SteelConnect also supports static IPs and PPPoE with authentication. For details, see Creating uplinks.

A complete mesh overlay connects across all sites and shares all networks that are involved with RouteVPN using full permissions.

The last task is to cable the physical appliances, using the first WAN port for internet. After powering on the appliances, each appliance will download the latest firmware if necessary, and reboot. After they are updated with the latest firmware, SteelConnect will automatically start building a secure overlay of VPN tunnels.

After AutoVPN establishes the tunnels, you can view the dashboard map to see a visible representation of the network. Each tunnel on the dashboard represents both directions. Click a site marker to verify that the locations are completely connected with a full-mesh VPN. SCM displays the established connections as green lines between the sites. The lines change to red if the tunnel switches to offline.

For troubleshooting, see Provisioning.

For details on adding a Wi-Fi broadcast to a zone, see How do I plan and broadcast Wi-Fi?.

This section steps through the optional procedure of setting up a home office for a CEO that has access to the corporate LAN. When finished, your configuration will reflect Figure: Organization with a home office added to the corporate network.

You’ll start by creating a unique site that isn’t part of a dedicated zone shared with the rest of the company. Instead, the new home office site will use an IP address on the headquarters network as though the CEO were working in the building.